The present invention relates in general to athletic sports equipment, and more particularly to an article of athletic sportswear.
In the field of amateur and professional athletics, athletic competitors frequently discontinue their athletic activity for a relatively short period of time. Examples of this situation are varied and include baseball and football players, such as pitchers and quarterbacks. Other examples include those athletes who are intermittently entering and leaving a sporting event. Each of these athletes has two common problems. The first problem is retaining the warmth, flexibility and limberness in a particular muscle group and connective tissue after the muscles and tissue have been warmed-up by use. Failure to retain the warmth, flexibility and limberness in the muscles and tissue prior to returning to the competition may result in damage to the muscles and tissue. The second problem shared by these athletes is properly cooling down the muscle group and connective tissue after strenuous exertion especially when the muscles and tissue have been damaged and show signs of inflammation.
Previous solutions to the problems discussed above have been twofold. In order to retain the warmth, flexibility and limberness in the muscles and tissue, an athlete simply donned an article of clothing. Likewise, in order to properly cool down the muscles and tissue, a cooling medium of some form, such as an ice pack, was applied to the affected area.
The previous solutions to the problems described are unsatisfactory because these solutions do not provide a convenient arrangement for retaining the warmth, flexibility and limberness in or for properly cooling down the muscles and tissue. The requirement of stopping the competition to permit a player to don a jacket or sweat pants in order to retain the warmth, flexibility and limberness in the muscles and tissue was found to be inconvenient. This situation is common when the baseball pitcher becomes a baserunner. In addition to consuming time, baserunning required complete freedom of movement and thus the past solution of donning only one-half the jacket is unacceptable. The player is then required to don the entire jacket which results in discomfort in warm climates. The application of an ice pack to an injury requiring immediate cooling of the affected area to avoid excessive swelling was cumbersome.